The present invention relates to a printing control system and a printing system which are capable of reducing the usage of printing sheets.
From the viewpoint of global environmental protection focused in recent years, the printing technology field is increasingly demanded to save resources including printing materials used by image forming apparatuses such as printing sheets and coloring materials. Among the functions of image forming apparatuses, there are functions of the type which can reduce the number of printing sheets to be used for printing, such as a double-side printing function for printing images on both sides of a printing sheet and an aggregate printing function for printing a plurality of images on one printing sheet by scaling the images down, thereby facilitating the resources saving.
For example, a print setting proposing system is disclosed which is configured to present a user interface (UI) which allows the user to select a desired print application from at least two print applications in response to a request for printing from the user, propose a specific printing condition suitable for the print application that has been selected by the user using the UI, prepare printing data attached with the printing condition in response to approval of the user to the proposal, and transfer the printing data thus prepared to a printer (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2004-302653).
One known image forming apparatus is configured to automatically cancel an aggregate printing function before printing when image data to be printed is one-page image data even though aggregate printing is to be performed (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-180085).
The aforementioned conventional print setting proposing system, however, involves a problem that the user is imparted with a sensation of troublesomeness because presentation of the user interface and the proposal of a printing condition are made every time the user makes a request for printing.
The aforementioned conventional image forming apparatus has a problem of being not so user-friendly because the aggregate printing function is sometimes automatically cancelled against the user's intention even when the user wishes aggregate printing.
Accordingly, a feature of the present invention is to provide a printing control system and a printing system which fail to automatically cancel a printing condition and make a sheet saving proposal to the user when a large resources saving effect can be expected, whereby these systems can be conveniently used by the user without imparting the user with the sensation of troublesomeness.